The Immortal that was flying above them softly landed in the arena and gestured for the two combatants to come down and join him. Cain gave a meaningful look to Luna, who would be left unattended and unguarded, and the Immortal took out a token from his robes, speaking softly for a moment before the Innkeeper and a small group of other old cultivators joined her beside the ring.
"Hello, little one. How about I explain the rules of this match to you? That big man there wants to take you as his disciple to train you. The rules say that if he can beat your current master, he is more qualified, so he is allowed to do it.
If he loses, your Master will take over the disciples that the other man is currently responsible for. The match only ends if one of them surrenders or dies. Once there is a surrender, the powerful one in the middle of the ring will stop the fight, and force the loser to leave town so that they don't cause trouble for others.
I should warn you though, most of the time, these fights go until death." The Innkeeper explained.
"I see. So it is like that General that attacked us at the farm before we went to the Library. I understand now." Luna nodded.
"You don't seem too concerned. Have you seen this before, or do you not really understand?" Another of the gray-robed guardians asked.
"I've only seen a challenge once before. But it wasn't this formal, and people tried to interfere. I don't think the old guy will allow that today, so I'm not too concerned that Dad will lose." Luna shrugged.
"Is he really that powerful?" The Innkeeper asked.
"You will see. He left most of his power back on our homeworld but fighting someone his own level has never been an issue for him. He is a legend on our homeworld." Luna said proudly.
The Immortal heard their conversation and turned to Cain before the match could begin. "Your daughter has interesting things to say. Where did you originally come from?"
Cain could sense that lying would be detected instantly by this powerful man, so he decided to lie with the truth.
"I was born on a rather normal and boring planet called Earth. More technology than this world from what I could see, clean water, good air. Overall a very nice but boring place to grow up." Cain informed him.
The world that he was sent to didn't really have a formal name, since there was only one and they couldn't leave, so the System translated every language's word for it to "This World".
"Earth? I know of that Mortal World. It is a strange and dangerous place, but I suppose to one who grew up there it would all seem normal and commonplace." The Immortal agreed, nodding in understanding.
Luna assumed that this man actually knew about their world, but before she could let any secrets slip she remembered that rule one was not to tell anyone here that she wasn't human. Even if they knew that other species exist, they probably hated and wanted to kill them.
"It should be interesting to see how a Magical Cultivator from Earth fights. The Mage type is exceedingly rare in this world, and I haven't seen such a spectacle in decades." The Immortal declared happily, then looked between the two combatants to see if they were ready.
"When the barrier around the ring goes up, you may begin." He announced, rising into the sky and forming an impenetrable dome around the thirty-meter diameter of the ring.
The challenger launched himself for Cain, who met him not with swords, but with Dragon Breath, then summoned a pair of Mythic Seraphim to assist him.
The challenger screamed in agony, then released a pulse of energy that blasted the Dragon Breath against the walls, and quickly blocked the first strikes of the avenging Angels.
The crowd all gasped in shock, though they believed the images to be illusions formed of energy. Just being able to create an illusion so realistic that it could damage people was an incredible talent all on its own.
Cain thrust his spear at his opponent, barely nicking his hand, and the other man screamed in agony as the additional damage effects on the Mythic Spear took effect. It was a Rune Crafted one that Cain had created, and it had turned out rather well. Nothing too complex, but it dealt a good bit of extra damage, and granted Cain some decent combat bonuses to make up for anything that he might lack.
His body was already at the very peak of the Spirit Realm, thanks to his Skills, but every bit of advantage was worth taking, including using [Primal Echo] and Merging with the new clones of his Ancient self. Each Echo had always been half as strong as Cain was, so the doubling of his strength, in addition to the powers of the Dragon and the Oath Breaker that he was already merged with was an overwhelming advantage, physically.
Trying to steal his daughter was a mistake that couldn't go without punishment though, and Cain wasn't satisfied with simply stabbing this man a few times and letting the Seraphim beat him up. He needed something that would really make his point.
Using [Versatility would let him activate a single skill at his current maximum power level, and Cain knew just the right one for the situation.
[Crushing Tentacles] filled the arena, grabbing the startled Combatant and beginning to stretch his limbs as the Seraphim Stabbed blades covered in holy light into him.
The moment that he opened his mouth to speak, Cain ordered a Tentacle to fill it, silencing him before he could have a chance to forfeit the match and anything else that he might own.
The challenger was no slouch though, and it wasn't his first duel.
Flooding his body with energy, he bit off the tentacle, and muttered an ability name, causing the energy around him to turn to vicious spikes, tearing at the Tentacles as they endeavored to rip him into pieces.
Once he had a hand free, the fight began in earnest, with him momentarily holding off the Seraphim and the Crushing Tentacles dismissed.
He hadn't counted on Cain's strength in physical combat though, and when Cain used the Oath Breaker's ability to step behind him, he was almost caught off guard. He knew Cain could use it, as he had seen Luna use it, but the speed of the attack was almost impossible to manage. Plus, the blow that he took to the energy barrier around his body was much stronger than the first one he had taken to his hand, almost knocking him to his knees.
Cain stepped forward, pushing his advantage, using the Scimitar to block multiple strikes, then striking the back of the man's leg with the spear, attempting to knock him off balance.
The Cultivator turned that unexpected motion to his advantage though, skewering a Seraphim through the heart, dropping the lifeless body to the ground in a heap, and enraging the other, who Immolated him in Holy Fire.
It wasn't burning through his armor, but Cain could see the man starting to sweat as the effort of keeping the barrier active wore at his stamina reserves.
"Shouldn't there be taunting? I feel like there should be trash talk, insulting of mothers, or the quality of their opponent's combat style." Luna asked the Innkeeper as they watched the life and death struggle between the two powerful combatants that was causing even the prodigious barrier erected by an immortal with an Immortal Grade barrier treasure to waver with the pulses of energy being released.
"Insults are for casual fights. Today, someone is going to die in that ring." The Innkeeper told her, very seriously. That was her father in the ring after all.
"Hmm, so save your breath and fight wasn't just a casual bit of advice, but a very serious rule for duels. I understand now." Luna replied happily, now understanding one of the lessons that she had been taught back in Long Fang Valley as Tamii, the Jackalope-type Lieutenants had trained her and the Blood Dancers to fight.
"Who taught you that, little one?" The Immortal asked casually, not taking his eyes off the fight.
"Tamii. She is a quadruplet and works for my Dad. They teach combat skills to the youngest kids in the Valley where I was born." Luna explained, carefully not mentioning nonhuman things, just like she was told.
The Librarian would be very proud of her attention to detail, Luna was sure.
The challenger was getting exhausted now, and Cain began to prepare for the inevitable last-ditch effort to survive this fight or escape. But what he hadn't expected was self-destruction. His opponent suddenly popped a Pill in his mouth and glowed with a violent red light, leaking flames from his every pore.
Cain used Versatility again, burning through Mana to summon a full set of Spirit Rank copies of Laura into a merger with him and activated their Ice Breath. Even with the stacked bonuses of a dozen Opal Prismatic Dragons, the Ice still melted under the fiery onslaught for a moment before Cain's spear pierced through it, taking advantage of the effects of [Might of Many] and destroying both the man's cultivation core and his heart at once.
"Winner, Master Cain, Spirit Rank Magical Cultivator of the Planet Earth." The Immortal declared in a resounding voice that echoed through the city, bringing everything to silence as the spectators stared at the frozen figure inside the block of ice in the arena.
A fight between Spirit Rank cultivators was rare for these common folk to see, but one to the death was a once-in-a-lifetime occurrence inside the small town, one that most spectators couldn't believe that they had seen. They had thought that certainly whoever the defeated party was would flee to save his own life.
